Nile Cruise

We did the exact same two week trip...twice One week cruise to Aswan from Luxor then a weeks stay in Luxor itself.
The cruise is just fantastic, but you are up very early to go on tours (hence the second time we did the cruise we just sat back and enjoyed the stunning views rather than do all the tours again, as amazing as they were).
When you reach Aswan you must visit Abu Simbel on a trip (it is about 4 hours on bus if I remember or you can fly).
We stayed at the New Winter Palace when in Luxor both times. First time, in 1998, it was a very nice hotel with nile view room etc but second time we stayed there in 2005 it seemed to have gone downhill quite a bit. Still had lovely pool and gardens though and of course is built alongside the famous Old Winter palace with all its history. Oh and it is a stones throw away from the likes of Luxor Temple, the museum etc
Other hotels that we dropped in for a cool drink looked nice were the Sheraton, and one on the front, a 5 star but cannot remember the name.
Oh we also went and stayed at Red Sea for 1 night, Hurghada, lovely relaxing beach holiday that would have been but we enjoyed Luxor with all its sights even more!
If you have any questions ask away

As she's thinking of going in February, the temerature will be nice. Certainly relative to the oppressive heat of the summer anyway! We went in December last year and it is ideal for sight-seeing all day (Karnak/Valley of the Kings/Queens/Nobles etc) which you couldn't do in the summer.
There are several threads on here (and on other holiday forums on the net) regarding the negative side of Luxor; hassle. Not for nothing is Luxor known as the Hassle Capital of Egypt. The locals are constantly hassling tourists whether they are staying in a hotel or on a cruise. They are also very inventive; one fella had put up his own makeshift barrier in a section of Karnak temple to charge people if they wanted to pass!

Is your mum thinking of going alone?

ghanagirl wrote: »

The modern part know as the New Winter Palace has been demolished and there is a huge amount of building going at the moment in luxor that affects many hotels including the fabulous Maritim Jolie Ville Luxor Resort our fav place to stay

see this link below
http://www.luxortraveltips.com/essentials/news.htm

Useful info, but I do hope that it doesn't put anyone off of visiting Luxor, it really is a very special place, building works or not.

We went with Thomsons on the boat Ra II for a week on the Nile and then a week at a Red Sea Resort.

A couple of points :

It's worth going with a well-known company (Thomsons, Portland, Thomas Cook etc.) as these operators get the best time slots to view the temples. The best time slots are very early in the morning - it's cooler and the sun is lower in the sky (which gives you more shade and better photographs). If you go with the lesser companies, you get time slots in the full heat of the middle of the day and, even in the winter, it is VERY hot. The tours can be quite exhausting so be sure that your mother feels confident that she can withstand walking and standing around in high temperatures with little shade for some hours. Note that they always get you back to the boat for all your meals - do not eat off-ship!

After a week doing the temples on the Nile, as someone said earlier, you are "templed-out" and so yet another week at Luxor amid the antiquities is really an anticlimax as you will already have seen the cream.
If you're happy with a beach holiday, I would thoroughly recommend a relaxing change at the Red Sea coast for the second week. Other people we were with who took their second week at Luxor said that they were bored by the end of a couple of days - and Luxor itself, as a city, did not look very exciting once you had walked along the waterfront and been to the temples.

Hi, again! Just found a review I did a little while ago - hope it helps.. I LOVE Luxor BTW. Make sure you go to the Museum & if you can, do the balloon flight over the valley of the kings in the morning (excellent!!). I like the Luxor Hilton for the hotel, but there are a lot of great ones to choose from... anyhoo, here is the review...

Domina Prestige Emilio Cruise

This was my third Nile cruise, the first being on the Nile Star, the second on the terrible, awful Viking. Given my experience on the latter, I was a little apprehensive about what to expect. However I can honestly say this was a world apart from either.

Let me start by saying, forget the star rating, it means almost nothing when it comes to these Nile cruises - I’ve seen the most run down barges called 4 star. Go by reviews, it is the safest way.

Now the name of the boat I notice varies from web site to web site - some only call it the Domina Prestige, some the Domina Prestige Emilio Cruise - in fact the latter is correct. We were told that Domina is the name of the boat, Prestige denotes that it is 5+ star (not just 5), Emilio is the name of the owner, and cruise, well that’s what it does!

This said, I didn’t see any of the other boats with the word Prestige, so I'm not 100% sure how accurate this actually is.

Anyhoo...

Starting with perhaps the most important part, the cabin.

I believe that all the cabins, apart from the single berth are the same, and certainly the others I poked my head in to when passing, did appear to be so.

About the same size as a Travel Inn room, perhaps a little smaller, but not by much - it contained;

2 beds
1 TV (had 1 news channel & one movie channel - both in English with Arabic subtitles) - but importantly, on the side were video/audio phono sockets so you could attach a video device, such as a laptop, or camcorder, etc.
2 chairs
A coffee table
A writing desk
A wardrobe (with hangers)
A safe (free!!)
A mini-bar (stocked with water,beers,chocolate)

There was really only one "free" power point to recharge your electrical equipment, although it was possible to unplug the standard lamp in the corner and use this too. There were a few "power outages" that lasted a few seconds, so it may be worth considering some sort of surge protector, if you have something really valuable.

The cabin also had big "conservatory like" sliding doors, and this really was what made the room a joy. Many of the ships just have large windows - some of which don’t even open, and whilst this is nice, it doesn’t compare in any way shape or form. It was so relaxing to slide the door back, pull up a chair, and watch the world go by. The wonderful thing about the Nile is that it isn’t really very wide, so you can see so much floating past. If you are a people/wildlife watcher, it's heaven! The ships also dont go down one side and up the other, they almost seem to meander, which means you regularly get a chance to be very close to the bank, no matter if you are port or starboard.

The only drawback is that when you are moored up, you tend to be "sandwiched" between boats - sometimes 4 - or 5 deep! So there is no view. This is because there are so many boats operating, its actually quite bewildering to see the convoy making it's way down the Nile - u cannot help but be a little disturbed about the amount of pollution that must be dumped in to the Nile - although I'm talking more about the fuel, garbage boats daily take the rubbish off the ships. That isn’t to say you don’t see the occasional plastic bottle, or bits of box, but I'm pretty sure this comes more from the fishermen and locals.

Each room also has a bathroom, which has a shower/bath combo, and sink, toilet, etc. These were very clean and the shower worked very well. There was always plenty of hot water. The bath was not full size, but not tiny either. The only issue was that the plug didn’t keep the water in for long - after about 15 minutes it had slowly drained out - so no chance of a soak! In addition, you need to be very careful about letting the water out too quickly as it can cause the small drain in the corner to overflow. Fortunately I noticed this quite quickly, but another passenger wasn’t so lucky! You do get soap and shampoo, so unless you need something special, you don’t need to pack any. Like most places in Egypt , you cannot flush toilet paper - there's a bin, which is cleaned out twice a day. I hate this, but I do understand why they need to do it.

Single berth cabins – please check with your tour operator about what you get, as we were told that they do not have the sliding door, but rather a small window.

Also, it is not really worth paying for an “upper deck” room unless you want to be near the sun deck. The restaurant is at the bottom, so you don't win here. You might find the view slightly more appealing being higher up, but if you want to watch the birds on the bank from your room, then actually the middle deck would probably be better.

The reception area of the ship is light, spacious, and clean although this is pretty much true of most of the ships (you get to see them as you walk through the boats to get off and on - depending on where you are moored of course)

The restaurant is also clean and tidy, and well decorated. There was no trouble with the seating (you get assigned a seat on the first day, although I don’t think they would mind if you wanted to swap) The food was "buffet" style - three counters one for salads, one for main dishes, one for desserts. Overall the food was for the most part, cooked well, and there was something for everyone each night. I wouldn’t say there was a lot of variety over the week we stayed, it seemed to be very similar dishes each night, but I think they did a good job - you have to remember this isn’t a hotel or a cruise liner. We were there full board, so had three meals, + tea and cakes in the afternoon on the days we were sailing.

Drinks were not included - other than juice and tea at breakfast, a welcome cocktail on the second day, and a return to the boat after an excursion drink (which was a small glass of juice, which frankly was extremely bitter).
The price of the drinks were sadly very expensive - bottles of Sahara beer were about £3.50 (of course when you go the exchange rate will dictate the actual price you pay). Tea and coffee was a slightly more reasonable £1.40 - £1.60. A can of coke was about £2.20!
There wasn’t anyone (who drank alcohol) who didn't end up with a bill at the end of the week that was less than £140. Fortunately we didn’t, and stuck to bottled water, so we got away with about £14 for the week. I would highly recommend buying soft drinks at the "temple" vendors, although make sure you check the price before you pick it up - point to what you want and say "how much?" Like almost everything you will need to barter, but you should never really have to pay more than 5 Egyptian pounds for a can of coke (they usually start at 10 btw). You can also buy bottled water on the coach that takes you on your tours, and is slightly cheaper than the boat.

** Some very important points to remember about buying drinks - try and stick with cans, they are much much harder to "fake". If i had a camel for every time someone had bought a bottle of "coke" and found that it was some watery brown liquid, I'd be Lawrence of Arabia. If you do want a bottle, at least check the cap to see if it has been tampered with. Also check the date on the bottle - but remember, they seem to work on a different principle in that the date stamped on the side appears to be the bottling date, and that it is then ok for the next 12 months.

The bar was again, clean and tidy, although to be honest we didn't spend much time in there. When we did go in it seemed to be quite empty, but then this was normally midday, I am sure it would have been busier in the evening.

The sun deck was pretty similar to most that you see on the Nile - with a small bar, sun loungers, chairs/tables, etc. Each lounger had a towel already on it (which was nice) and there were plenty of them. The pools on these boats never seem to be very big - for obvious reasons, so don’t expect to do "laps". I should mention that most of these boats don't have children on them (or very few), so the size of the pool isn’t normally much of an issue. I should perhaps also add that these boats are really geared up for children, and neither are the itineraries. I think it's also fair to say that to get the most out of the holiday; you do need to be mobile. I don't believe there are many facilities’ on the ship for disabled people, and certainly getting in and out of the temples would be tough.

The staff on the ship were very helpful, polite, and always had a smile. My only niggle was that one waiter seemed to take a "shine" to a lovely lady on our table, travelling by herself. He tried to get her to meet him for a "chat" one evening, and whilst she didn't feel threatened or intimidated, it was awkward. On the plus side they operated a "leave your tip in an envelope at the end of the week for all the staff" system, so you weren't pestered all the time for money.

This leads me on to the tipping. Sadly in Egypt the local people think that anyone who can afford to come to Egypt , must be rich, and that they can easily afford to give big tips. Most boats work on the envelope system I mention, and you will be offered guidelines as to what is "expected" This can vary quite a bit, but as an average it seems to be £50 per cabin for the week. There is also an additional £7 per person for the driver taken on the first or second day. Now for some people, £50 is a small amount, to others that’s a lot, so give what you can, but don’t feel obligated to leave what they ask. I love Egypt , but honestly if you gave £50 they'd ask for £100, if you gave £100, they'd ask for £200 - that's just their culture, and to be honest I'm not really convinced you wouldn’t find the same in many places in the UK . Just bare in mind that there are 72 cabins - say for 40 weeks of the year it was half full, the driver would be getting approx £10,000 a year in tips...(36 x £7 = £252 x 40 weeks =£10k)
Other facilities include a massage room (you will obviously need to pay for the treatments), a gym (didn't use this so couldn’t comment – but did see a treadmill), a sauna (didn't use this so couldn’t comment), a gift shop (selling a small selection of books, cards, t-shirts, etc., and a jewellery shop. I have seen mentioned a “Piano bar”, which frankly is a stretch – it’s a piano in the corner at the top of the stairs – no chairs, no waiters, and has a “do not touch” sign on it – it’s not a bar. There are internet facilities, but it was really expensive – if memory serves approx £7 for 30 minutes.

So in summary... Yes there are a few things I would change if I had the chance, but overall, and in comparison to other ships on the Nile , this was outstanding. I would have no doubts or qualms about recommending this to family and friends. Just watch how much you spend on drinks!